New Community Research Spotlights Oregon Summer Learning

With another historic investment in summer learning on the horizon, FBO and partners explore how community-based summer programs support youth to learn, grow, and thrive.

Students learn Chinese waist drumming at the Chinese Friendship Association's 2021 summer learning program in Beaverton.
Students learn Chinese waist drumming at the Chinese Friendship Association's 2021 summer learning program in Beaverton.

Whitney Swander is Data and Research Director at Foundations for a Better Oregon.

Whitney Swander is Data and Research Director at Foundations for a Better Oregon.

Last summer, after an extremely challenging year, approximately 340,000 Oregon children and young people felt the joy of learning, play, and discovery through summer learning programs that were designed and led by their communities, for their communities. This investment dramatically increased equitable access to summer learning, particularly for youth who have experienced the worst impacts of the pandemic as well as long-standing injustices.

Today, as we celebrate another major statewide investment in summer learning, including $50 million for community-based programs in 2022, I’m thrilled to share new community-driven research highlighting how culturally specific community-based summer learning supports Oregon youth to learn, grow, and thrive.

At FBO, our approach to research and data is grounded in learning alongside communities. With so many powerful examples of community-based learning across Oregon last year, we were honored to partner with two culturally specific organizations to co-design original research projects to accompany their summer learning programs.

As we conclude our summer research partnerships with REAP, Inc., and the Chinese Friendship Association of Portland (CFAP), we’re excited to publish two co-designed research reports that spotlight the power of summer learning when built on the deep-rooted strengths, wisdom, and cultures within Oregon communities.

Each research partnership was unique, exploring how community-based learning can connect children to their heritage, language, and culture, or empower young people to develop the power of their own voice and leadership. Together, these reports offer community-driven insights that can apply across Oregon’s learning ecosystem, encompassing both our public education system and many youth-serving organizations. You can read the reports below, or find them in FBO's research library.

I’m deeply grateful to our research partners at CFAP and REAP, Inc., as well as Dr. Tanisha Tate Woodson for their collaboration. Our work together reaffirms that those who create opportunities for young people to thrive are also powerfully positioned to frame and conduct meaningful research, helping us all reimagine where and how learning happens. 

Let’s carry these learnings forward, into the summer of 2022 and beyond.

RESEARCH

It’s a Place to Belong: Connecting Learning to Culture and Community

Collaborative research insights from the Chinese Friendship Association of Portland and Foundations for a Better Oregon.

READ THE REPORT


Building on the community’s rich assets of Chinese language and culture, professional expertise in innovative pedagogy, and a commitment to elevating youth voice and leadership, the Chinese Friendship Association of Portland (CFAP) successfully leveraged Oregon’s investment in summer learning to meet both the urgent and ongoing needs of Chinese youth in the Portland metropolitan region. CFAP leaders launched summer programming that gave youth from elementary to high school a safe space and meaningful opportunity to learn, lead, play, and grow by connecting with their Chinese identity, heritage, and community.

This co-designed CFAP/FBO study reflects the capacity of culturally specific and community-led efforts to meet the needs of the community while simultaneously pushing for systems change that leads to increased representation, greater access to opportunity and services, and equitable outcomes for Chinese, Asian American, and Pacific Islander youth and families.

RESEARCH

Growing Youth Voice and Leadership Through Responsive Programming

Collaborative research insights from REAP, Inc., and Foundations for a Better Oregon.

READ THE REPORT


Following a year of social isolation and disrupted routines, REAP, Inc., welcomed culturally diverse youth from across the Portland metropolitan area to spend the summer in tight-knit, supportive environments that were highly responsive to their hopes and needs.

This co-designed REAP/FBO study highlights how REAP reached and responded to young people in ways they don’t often experience in public education and other out-of-school learning settings. Rather than emphasizing a specific curriculum or youth development model, REAP’s approach is defined by how it offers young people an environment and the encouragement to belong, to develop their own voice, and to lead among peers and within the community.